Harry Potter and the Online Site
by Jane Glass
Summary: This is not only a story, but a guide to Fan Fiction as well. Rated T for minor language in later chapter(s).
1. Chapter 1: Account

**Harry Potter and the Online Site**

**Chapter 1: Account**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or Fanfiction or anything mentioned in this story. **

**A.N.: I noticed that a lot of people have a lot of questions about FF. I understand most things on FF, so I've made this guide. I would like to thank Zieyune, who gave me the base idea for turning my guide into a story so it could stay on FF.**

**Rated: T  
**

**Warning(s): None.**

**-Rose's POV-**

I was watching Hugo, my younger brother, who was sitting at the laptop in our playroom…well, it used to be our playroom, but we still refer to it as a playroom, it's just for older kids now. He was frowning at the screen, and after a moment I stop my Play Station game to walk over to stand next to him, as I knew that frown meant he didn't understand something.

"What's Fan Fiction?" He asks, staring at the bookmarked page. "Think, what is fiction?" I ask him instead of answering, as I thought it'd be better if he used his brain for once. "Fake stuff…" He answers, though it sounded more like a question. "Sure, now what is a fan?" I ask, crossing my arms. He smiles, about to answer, but I cut in, "Not the machine that cools you off or the Chinese fans, either, Hugo."

"Someone who likes something a lot…" He says, looking as if I were lecturing him. "Now, back to your question: what is Fan Fiction?" I ask, reaching over to click on the bookmark. "Fiction created by fans?" He asks, looking like he had trouble believing that. "That's correct. It's really fun, so long as you do things properly." I say, smiling at him.

"What should do I have to do, then?" Hugo asks, raising an eyebrow. "Well, first let me…" I began, but was cut off by him, "Let me do that! I know how a laptop works!" With those words he snatched the mouse out of my hand. "Hey!" I yell, surprised by the sudden action. "Just explain it!" He says, looking annoyed.

"Fine…click sign up, at the top right corner of the Fan Fiction page. You'll need to type in a username, an email address, and a password. By signing up you verify you are at least 13 years of age and accept the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy." I say, putting my hands on my hips as I walk over to a nearby window. "Seriously, Rose? That last part wasn't necessary."

I sigh in annoyance before continuing, "And then click on your username in the top right corner, that'll take you to your own personal area on the site.

Now, click 'Account', it should be on the left, not at the top, but near the top. Click 'Settings' now, this is where you look at your important stuff. Make sure you read the 'Security and Privacy Best Practice' at the top part of the page before scrolling to look at your Account Settings: Profile URL, Userid, Pen Name, Email, and Password. Remember that you may change your Pen Name, Email, and Password at any time. Now read the Account Options: Display Location, Moderate Guest Reviews, Accept Private Messages (PM), Filter Profanity. You may click 'Yes' or 'No' on each of those at any time.

Below 'Settings' is 'Backup Emails', you may want to read that for a moment before continuing.

'Network Accounts' is next; take a quick look at that before continuing.

Now you've made it to 'Profile'. A lot of people decorate their profiles in lots of different ways, and some leave it empty. Take a quick look at a few different ones, take a look at a random person's profile, now think about what you want yours to be like, but remember what 'Security and Privacy Best Practice' reads:

Never give your site login/password to any 3rd party. Staff will never ask for your login password.

Our services are 100% free and any 3rd party charging a fee is unauthorized and to be avoided.

Do not put sensitive info on your profile: i.e. phone number, home address, photo, full name, date of birth, and etc.

Go to 'Avatar' when you're down playing around with your profile. Here you'll be able to add a picture to be your avatar, which will appear on your profile, when you PM someone, on forums, and more. Press the 'Browse…' button to choose an image from your computer, then press save when you have the image you want. You can change it later.

You've made it to 'Block Users', where you may block users who have been mean to you or if they're trolls, or if they've disobeyed rules at your forum, or if their creeping you out. You could probably block them without reason…."

"Wow, thanks." Hugo says, smiling now. "I'm not done explaining!" I say, crossing my arms. "Mom's calling us for lunch." Hugo says, standing up. "Well, it'll wait until we get back then. I'll tell you about the 'Publish' area of your online Fan Fiction page next." I say, smiling to myself as he muttered something about telling mom on me.

**If you find this helpful then please spread it around by adding this to your favorites. Also, reviews would be great!**


	2. Chapter 2: Publish

**Harry Potter and the Online Site**

**Chapter 2: Publish**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or Fanfiction or anything mentioned in this story. **

**A.N.: Okay, two bad words in this chapter, but I'm sure everyone has heard these two.**

**Rated: T **

**Warning(s): None.**

**-Rose's POV-**

"I really don't need your help!" Hugo says, looking from me to mom as I helped put away plates from lunch. "Rose, give him a chance then." Mom says, moving me slightly so she could wash the dishes. "Yeah, okay." I say before following Hugo back to our playroom. I sat down on a bean bag, waiting in boring silence for him to ask for my help on something. I glanced over to him and saw he had that frown on again. I'll wait, though.

3, 2, 1…. "Could you explain how I'm supposed to publish stories…?" He mutters after a moment reluctantly. "I'd have to explain the entire section, since I don't know what you mean exactly." I answer, smirking slightly. "Okay, go ahead then…." He says, sighing while running a hand through his orange hair. "Good, click 'Publish', and then click 'Info/Guide', I advise reading that thoroughly.

Now to 'Doc Manager', allow me to explain what you need to do here. Go to the lower part of the page where it reads 'Create New Document', then click in the empty box next to the words 'Label:' and write what you want the document to be called. Now choose a method up getting your story up. Use file upload or copy-N-paste. Don't know what either of those do or how they work? No problem!

File upload is best to use if you have a different document for every one of your chapters. Copy-N-paste is best to use if you keep all of the chapters in one document. That way you can copy chapter 1 into the area provided when you choose that option. Or, if you're making the story right on the spot then you should choose copy-N-paste, that will allow you to type things in a white box that opens after choosing that option. Now, do you choose Story or DocX?

Story: Only Story format documents can be later converted into publishable stories/chapters. Story format has a restricted set of layout styles: underline, bold, italic, and text centering. All text will be displayed in black color.

DocX: DocX format docs cannot be converted into publishable stories/chapters. These docs can only be used in the Document Exchange (DocX) feature. DocX format is minimally restricted in terms of layout options. Text color and text highlight/background colors are fully preserved. This is the preferred format for the transfer of beta doc or any document that you wish to retain as much of the original layout as possible.

You are now thinking: what?! That's what I thought too. Long story short: Story will be turned into story only. DocX is used between beta-readers (editors) and the person who owns the story they're editing. Now read 'Notes/Compatible Files'. "After 90 days, stale documents will be removed." Just to clear that up a bit, it won't remove your story, just the document. Read the rest of that and then move on to 'New Story'.

Here at 'New Story', things are quite easy. Select your category and whether or not it's a crossover. Crossovers, by the way, are when two categories, say two of your favorite shows, are crossed over. Note that if they don't have a category you're looking for then you can a (email them or b (choose Misc. Books, Misc. Cartoons, Misc. TV…. Misc. stands for miscellaneous, which means various. If you choose to email them, then go to the very bottom of the page and click 'Help', which should take you to a page that reads 'Support'. You can learn a good bit here, so read everything. While reading everything, please notice FF's email address. Back to the main part of this, though, okay? Now after choosing a category hit the continue button.

Choosing an image for your story is optional, as Fan Fiction reads, but it's also recommended, as it might bring in more readers when they see the cover art. Next, give your story a title, and then an interesting summary. Never write "I'm no good at summaries", it's not very attractive, since if you can't do a good summary then chances are your stories not that good either. People love confidence. Choose the language; it should be the same language that your document was in.

Choose the rating, this may be slightly difficult. I'd advise that if you don't know what to rate it then wait until we reach 'Rules & Guidelines', when we reach that I'll explain more on that. Choose the genres; you may choose two of these, unless it's not needed, and then just leave one or both set to general, but if the story does have a genre then I'd advise you set it to that genre, so it's easier for people to find the stories they are looking for. What's the status of your story? Is it in-progress or is it complete?

Choose one of those, and then choose what characters are in your story. You can choose up to 4 characters, so choose the major ones only. The X on the left side of the character's name box is to put the character back. The arrow on the right side of character's name box is to open a pairing option. You may set characters to Pair A and Pair B. Next, choose the document that your story is in; make sure you choose the right one.

Enter the code shown at the bottom of the page into the empty box. Note that if you mess the code up then sometimes it'll reset some of your options, so get it right the first time. Click the headset button to hear the code (I've never tried it). Click the blue arrows that turn in a circle to get a new code, maybe one that's clearer to read. You may click both of the buttons as many times as needed. At the button right corner of the page, click 'Publish New Story'.

Now, go to 'Manage Stories' this is where you can find every story you've ever added to FF. Click on one of your stories to see all the information for that story. Under the words 'Editing Story:_', you should see 'Properties', 'Content/Chapters', 'Preview', 'Download', and 'Delete Story'. 'Properties' is where you are currently, so we'll start from there. 'Info' is information on your story. There you should see 'Url: .net', 'Reviews: 3', 'Followers: 1', 'Favorites: 2', 'Communities 0', and 'Views: 90, Traffic Graph'. 'Story Properties' is where you change other things, such as the type of the story, the title, summary, and other things.

After making sure everything is as it should be then go back to the top of the page and to 'Content/Chapters', here you can either 'Post New Chapter' or 'Replace/Update Chapter'. Click the pencil icon to change the name of your story. Click the papers icon to export a chapter, this will put the exported chapter in 'Doc Manager'; this is useful if you want to edit a chapter but you don't have it on your computer. Click the computer chip icon…thing…to download chapters. Click the red circle with the line on in it to delete chapters.

Now, moving on to 'Preview'; this will take you to a page called 'Live Preview', where you can read your chapters. 'Download' is next; I'm not exactly sure how it works, but its looks like an easy way to copy and paste your entire story from the download screen to a document on your computer. I might be able to tell you more about that later. Last is the 'Delete' area, don't click that unless you are absolutely sure, and then don't press 'Yes' unless you're even more sure, because it will delete all of the chapters in the story you delete and all of the reviews and everything attached to the story.

'Rules & Guidelines' is that boring thing you except without thinking much about it. Wrong! You should read 'Rules & Guidelines often. VERY often! Now, let's skip to the ratings, since the rest is pretty straight forward. K: Intended for general audience 5 years and older. Content should be free of any coarse language, violence, and adult themes. Nothing much to say about that, nobody messes that one up to much. K+: Suitable for more mature children, 9 years and older, with minor action violence without serious injury. May contain mild coarse language. Should not contain any adult themes. Once again, it's obvious what should and shouldn't go in that rating area.

T: Suitable for teens, 13 years and older, with some violence, minor coarse language, and minor suggestive adult themes. Now, it's the older ratings that get tricky. "minor coarse language", meaning you don't want to many big bad words. I think you could use damn and hell, since those are well known, plus they have real meanings and aren't used for any other reasons than what they're supposed to be used for.

M: Not suitable for children or teens below the age of 16 with non-explicit suggestive adult themes, references to some violence, or coarse language. Fiction M can contain adult language, themes and suggestions. Detailed descriptions of physical interaction of sexual or violent nature is considered Fiction MA. And MA isn't an option, so that sort of content shouldn't be on FF, but I warn you, it is.

Read the rest of that, then go to 'Recovery', this is where you go to find your deleted stories. You can un-delete stories there. Now time to tell you about the 'Private Messaging' area…" I was about to start in on that, but was cut off. "No! That's enough for now!" Hugo says, staring at me like I'm a monster. I chuckle a bit before nodding. "You guys didn't want to go broom racing?" I hear a familiar voice say and I turn to see James standing in the doorway.

"Sorry, forgot all about that…" I mumble, remembering now. "How could you forget? Wait…did you get a new book or something?" James asks, walking over and looking around the room as if wondering where the 'new book' was. "No, I've been helping Hugo sign in and get comfortable on Fan Fiction." I answer, smiling a bit. "Helping me? She's trying to kill me!" Hugo says, looking up from the laptop. "Really? I'll stay and help." James says, and I laughed at how that sounded with Hugo's sentence. "Great…" Hugo mutters.

**Okay, I'm no good with humor, so excuse me at my attempt, but this supposed to be a guide more than anything, so it doesn't matter. Please review and favorite so we can spread this around!**


	3. Chapter 3: Private Messaging

**Harry Potter and the Online Site**

**Chapter 3: Private Messaging**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or Fanfiction or anything mentioned in this story. **

**A.N.: I forgot to say this last time, but I have a forum, check my profile to see the link. Anyone's welcome so long as they go by the easy rules. **

**Rated: T **

**Warning(s): None.**

**-Rose's POV-**

"Okay, Hugo, lesson three, you ready?" James asks from where he sat at a writing desk on the left side of the room with his plate of fruit, chips, chocolate and things. "Ready as I'll ever be." Hugo says, sighing before putting a grape in his mouth. I grabbed a handful of chips and chocolates and stuffed them in my mouth. There was an upside to having James here: I could eat while he explained simple stuff.

"Alright, so click 'Private Messaging', if you haven't already. 'Inbox' is where stuff that's sent to you goes. 'Outbox' is where stuff you send to others go. You can delete stuff that's sent to you by clicking the red button with the white line through it on the right side of the messages from you 'Inbox'. You cannot delete stuff you send to others.

Once you press PM on someone's page (which means Private Message), you will see 'Private Messaging (PM)' at the top of the page, below that is 'Compose Message', and then 'Note: Private Messages (PMs) are delivered to both the recipient's email and PM Inbox. To prevent spam, you may only include web link from FanFiction & FictionPress. Sending unsolicited spam will result in the suspension of your site account', heed that warning.

'To:' shows who you're sending it to. 'Subject:' is where you write the subject of the conversation. 'Message:' is where you write your message. 'Site Preview' will allow you to see what it would look like. 'Send Message' sends the message. There is no way to stop it after it's been sent. Also, you might be wondering how many messages can be sent between you and someone, well, so far I happen to know you can get a whole second page. Also, if you have 'Filter Profanity' turned on then it will add asterisk to anything close to a bad word."

"Is that it?" Hugo asks in happy shock as he stares at James. "Yeah, what else would there be?" James asks, smirking in amusement. "I guess it expected it to be longer…. I'm not complaining, though!" Hugo says, raising his hands as if in self-defense. "Alright, but 'Image Manager' is next." I say, eating the last chip on my plate. "Is that going to be long?" Hugo questions, whiny slightly. "Nah, not really.…" James answers before I could tease Hugo. "Good…." Hugo says, sighing in relief. Well, what fun was that?

**This chapter is shorter for obvious reasons, but anyway.**


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